The present relates to power tools for tightening and loosening threaded connectors, such as bolts provided with nuts and washers.
It is known that most pneumatic, hydraulic or manually operated torque tools have a smaller operating radius than the nut placed on for tightening. It is also known that the industry is trying to build smaller equipment despite higher pressures and bigger loads.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,318,393 discloses a nut which is composed of two sleeves surrounding the bolt. Its diameter can not be reduced relative to the nut it replaces. A tensioning bolt disclosed in my U.S. patent application Ser. No. 091033,790 filed on Mar. 3, 1998 makes feasible to reduce the outside diameter of the nut below 1.5 times the bolt diameter. This allows the manufacturer to put the bolts closer together so as to obtain a better compression flow on the flange or casing. By placing the bolts closer together, more and thus smaller bolts can be applied to obtain the desired compression, especially since the preset, desired residual load can be obtained very accurately.
For tensioning of a bolt, a turning action force is applied by a power tool, and at the same time a reaction force must be applied which counteracts the turning action force. It is desirable to provide possibilities to apply the reaction force on various parts of the threaded fasteners, such as bolts provided with nuts and washers.